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James 3:8
8 But [de] the tongue [glossa] can [dunamai] no [oudeis] man [anthropos] tame [damazo]; it is an unruly [akataschetos] evil [kakos], full [mestos] of deadly [thanatephoros] poison [ios]. KJV-Interlinear
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. NASB
No one, that is, no one under creation, can tame the tongue. No one possesses the ability to bring their own tongue under total control. Why?
For one thing, the tongue is a representation, or the manifestation, of the content of your soul. What you think, you eventually speak. And what you think is influenced by what you have learned in life. And what you have learned in life influences what you believe.
There are only two sources of influence which can affect your life - the carnal side which is run by the sin nature, and the spiritual side which is run by the Holy Spirit through Bible doctrine.
Everything which is bad in life, and eventually comes out of your mouth, comes from your sin nature.
Nothing bad will ever come out of the spiritual side. By definition, that is an impossibility. The spiritual side of your life is the state of perfection, the state of fellowship with God, the environment of your relationship with God.
God can have nothing to do with sin, so the spiritual side must exist within a state of sinless perfection. This is accomplished with confession (to God the Father), and it is made possible by confession, because Christ paid all of the costs associated with sin and death.
The state of the sin nature, is a state of deadly poison. The meaning of 'ios' is the type of poison which comes from a deadly and fatal snakebite, from which there is no recovery.
Living outside of the spiritual life, means that you are living in a jungle environment in which total failure is your only destiny.
Life under the sin nature is deadly, guaranteed failure, and from your own effort and energy, you will never change its nature. You can't.
In order to defeat the sin nature, you need something that is greater than it. That greater source is Christ, doctrine, and a functioning spiritual life. Which, by the way, all come from God, not you.
